


Whatever It Takes

by BrightTerror



Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [10]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: "100", Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fire, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hotch as Reid's parental figure, Hurt Aaron Hotchner, Hurt Spencer Reid, Hurt/Comfort, References to s5ep9, Spencer Reid Whump, Whump, references to Hankel, so is Rossi tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27010342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightTerror/pseuds/BrightTerror
Summary: Day 14 IS SOMETHING BURNING? (Fire)Hotch and Reid are stuck in a burning building. Chaos ensues.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & David Rossi, Aaron Hotchner & Jack Hotchner, Aaron Hotchner & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & David Rossi, Spencer Reid & The BAU Team
Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948378
Comments: 12
Kudos: 209
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Whatever It Takes

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is a fun one! and by fun I mean it's extra whumpy.  
> This isnt beta read so I'm sorry for any typos or errors.

Neither of them had expected their day to go like this. Sure, they knew the chance of dying was a possibility in every case they worked with, but they didn’t think they would be so close to death this _one_ time.

Reid and Hotch had gone to talk to a guy who they thought might be able to help them in their latest case. The unsubs profile was all over the place, certain signs pointed him to be a sexual sadist, but the other signs pointed him to be an arsonist. It didn’t make any sense. 

So, they found someone who they thought might help identify the unsub and ended up going to a penthouse in a six-story building. 

As soon as they got there, it appeared no one was home so Hotch called for backup just in case, while him and Reid inspected the place. The door was unlocked so they walked in with their guns ready. They decided to not split up and clear the rooms together, after all, neither had their vests on and their unsub was too unpredictable. 

Once they cleared the place, they saw no one was there so they let their guard down. They both walked towards the door to leave while Hotch called the rest of the team to tell them they didn’t need backup anymore. “-Yeah, there was no one here, Dave. He might have known the unsub or be the unsub himself, since he ran away. There’s no belongings, no nothing…” 

Reid went to open the door but the doorknob was stuck. He frowned and tried again, and again, until he was forcefully trying to pry it open. “Hotch. It won’t open.” 

“Don't hang up.” Hotch told Dave and put the call on hold. Trying to open it himself he frowned. “Did you close it when we came in?” 

Reid shook his head. “No, I thought you did. It was open when we came in and I was a bit too preoccupied covering your back to stop and close it.”

Hotch loosened his tie and passed the phone to Reid. “Here hold this.” He instructed him and tried to kick the door open, Morgan Style. It didn’t work. The door was jammed from the outside and there was no way they were getting out any time soon. 

Hotch did not have a good feeling about this, he grabbed his phone back and talked to Rossi who was still on the line. “Dave. We have a problem. We’re locked inside, it seems we walked into a trap.” Hotch gave him the address and hung up. Help was on the way, all they needed to do was stay put. 

“So, we just wait here till someone gets us out? Something feels off about this. We are here on purpose; the unsub knew that. So why would he lock us in here just to do nothing else?” Reid was jittery. None of this made sense and the more he thought about it the less answers he had, and the more questions popped on. 

“I don’t know, doesn’t make much sense but we don’t have any other choice but to wait.” Hotch frowned. He hated feeling like a sitting duck, just waiting for the bad thing to strike. The reason he was so good at his job was because he always had a calm head on dangerous situations and was able to act quick. He couldn’t do anything now and it unnerved him. Having Reid with him didn’t make anything better. Everyone was overprotective over the youngest agent of the team and Hotch had a feeling today was not going to be a good one. 

________

The good thing was, they didn’t have to wait long until shit hit the fan. Only a few minutes passed after they were locked up when they noticed the smoke. 

Hotch and Reid were sitting on the couch. Reid was tapping his foot on the ground repeatedly and Hotch was tenser than usual keeping an eye on everything. Hotch was trying to make small talk with Reid—and by small talk he meant asking Reid random statistics to keep his brain occupied and calm him down— when Reid lifted his head in alarm and grabbed his gun automatically. 

“Hotch. You smell that?” Reid frowned. 

Hotch took a whiff of air and knew what Reid meant. “Smoke.”

Reid started walking towards the windows to open them. They hadn’t tried to open them before because they were on a 6th story building at the top floor. There wouldn’t be a way to get out through there. But now Reid needed to open them to get air. The smoke was faint, but the smell was growing stronger by the minute and they needed oxygen. 

Sadly, the windows were jammed too, they couldn’t just break them because they weren’t made of glass but polycarbonate. It appeared the unsub had thought ten steps ahead of the agents and there was no way either of them way getting out by themselves. 

There was smoke everywhere. It was slowly but surely filling up the entire room and there was nothing they could do about it. The fire wasn’t even on their floor but one floor below them, meaning they couldn’t evacuate the building and they couldn’t go to the roof because it was locked. They were trapped. 

By the time they tried to open all the windows in the penthouse the smoke got denser. Reid guessed the fire was a few floors down, judging by the lack of flames but excessive amount of smoke. They already heard the sirens in the distance, so they weren’t in any immediate danger of being burned alive any time soon, but the smoke was becoming a problem. 

Having trouble breathing and stinging eyes came first. While they tried to pry open the windows with no luck, they felt their chest begin to tighten and their blinking was more rapid as their eyes tried to stay moist with all the smoke getting in the way. They could feel their eyes sting and blur with tears. 

They looked at each other and silently agreed they would communicate through signs to avoid talking as much as possible to not waste their oxygen. Besides, Reid could feel his throat feel all scratchy so it would hurt if he tried to speak. 

Hotch tried to use his phone again to call Rossi but, same as before, there was no signal. He still had hoped his team would get in time; he had called Rossi before the fire started after all. So, they were on their way. They just had to hold on a bit longer. 

The heat of the fire was getting to them and even though it was clear the flames weren’t on their floor yet; it was way too warm for their liking. Reid was the first one to loosen his tie and take off his vest as he had a coughing fit. His lungs weren’t always in their best capacity and after he died with Hankel, he had some lasting breathing problems, and this was _so not helping._

Hotch loosened his tie as well and was having similar problems as Reid, he had trouble breathing and his chest felt like it had a heavy pressure on it. His eyes were stinging, and his throat was dry. A headache was starting to form as well, and he guessed it had to do with the lack of oxygen he was getting. 

Hotch grabbed Reid by the arm and yanked him to the farthest room in the penthouse. They had to find the room with the least amount of smoke, which was difficult to find since the air was already dense and ashy through the entire floor. 

Hotch knew that with a fire this big there would be casualties, he didn’t want to think about the people who couldn’t get out of ground zero where it started. He knew by now the firemen were evacuating the lower floors and moving upward. He shook his head, that wasn’t his problem now. All he needed to do was keep the agent by his side alive. He didn’t know how he would manage that; odds did not look well for any of them, but he had to try. 

Hotch could feel his heartbeat accelerate and was feeling lightheaded and tired, he was fighting yet another coughing fit and trying to keep his mind focused on the other agent. It was a very difficult task to do when he felt his entire chest burning and his eyes water at the contact with the ashy smoke. 

He heard a wheezing sound behind him and turned around to see Reid, leaning onto the wall, eyes barely open and coughing. Well, it wasn’t fully coughing. It was more of a mixture of a cough and a wheeze. It didn’t sound good. 

Hotch immediately fell down to his knees to be at eye level with Reid. He wanted to tell him to hold on a bit longer, that they would make it out of this alive and well, but he couldn’t. However, he couldn’t just give up. He had to do _something,_ so he patted Reid on the shoulder as a sign of comfort and gave him an encouraging nod. To try and convey to him that everything was going to be alright. 

Hotch didn’t believe they were going to be alright, but that didn’t matter. All he needed to make sure was that Reid believed it. And he must have because Hotch could see some relieve in Reid’s eyes as he slightly nodded and gave him a small smile before he closed his eyes. 

Hotch tried to ignore his panic and worry rising in his chest as Reid slumped to the floor, completely still. He checked for a pulse and ignored the warm, burning feeling in his hand as he touched Reid’s wrist. They were both slowly burning up and it didn’t matter if the fire didn’t get to them. They were going to boil either way. 

He felt a pulse, it was faint but there. Knowing he would do whatever it took to get him alive, he forcefully stood up, stumbling towards the door, trying to knock it open. 

The metal handle was burning. If the door had been jammed before, it was way worse now. The heat expanded the wood door and there was no way it would open. No matter how much Hotch tried. But he couldn’t just stand there and do nothing as he and Reid died. He couldn’t die, he couldn’t leave Jack without parents. Reid had died once back in the old wooden shed and Hotch had to watch his youngest agent die back then, he couldn’t, he _couldn’t_ watch it again. 

He tried kicking the door open until all his energy was gone and his hands were blistering from the heat. He had burned them up while trying to open the door, the handle had been too hot, even with his jacket as a glove. 

He didn’t know how long he tried to kick the door open or how long he tried to break the window but eventually it was too much. His throat felt like it was on fire and his chest felt petrified as a rock. He wasn’t sure if the tears in his eyes were from the smoke anymore and his wheezing was becoming worse. 

He stumbled back towards Reid and slumped against the wall, falling down next to where the other agent was. He managed to pull himself in a sitting position with his back against the wall. Checking for Reid’s pulse he didn’t know if he was relieved or not that he was still alive. Watching the other die slowly while unconscious is something he never ever wants to do. And yet he has had the displeasure of experiencing it twice. 

He managed to scoot over Reid towards himself, so he was slumped against his shoulder and chest. Hotch wrapped an arm around him and held him close. “I’m sorry.” He said but it came out barely audible and raspy from the amount of smoke in his throat. He wanted to say so much more than just a simple _I’m sorry_ . He wanted to say _I’m sorry for failing you again. I’m sorry you didn’t get to live as much as you deserved, I’m sorry I couldn’t save you again…_

But he couldn’t say it, and even if he could, Reid was already unconscious and wouldn’t be able to hear it. 

He couldn’t stop his brain from thinking about Haley. _Was this how she felt? Knowing she was going to die before it happened? How much pain was she in?_ The psychological turmoil she must have been in knowing she was going to die would have been horrible, if it was anything like what Hotch was feeling now. 

They both had known the pain before they died that they weren’t going to see their son again. Hotch suddenly felt a wave of grief for both him and Haley and he choked on a sob. 

He knew Rossi and Jessica would be great in their godparent’s role. They would take care of his Jack, there’s a reason why he chose them to take care of him in the first place. He just hoped that Jack would grow up knowing that his Dad loved him and wanted the best for him... Rossi would probably make sure of it. 

He let a few silent tears roll down, those were definitely not due to the smoke, but no one would know any better. He hugged Reid close. He couldn’t save him, but he was not going to let him die alone again. At least there was someone with him this time. 

That’s the last coherent thought he had before everything went blurry and then he welcomed the darkness that took him. 

_____

Hotch heard voices and his head was moving. No, that was wrong. His head wasn’t moving. He was moving? Something was moving. “R’id?” he opened his eyes but all he could see was lights being shoved in his face. He closed his eyes and unconsciousness took him again. 

He could hear sirens, he thought it was sirens. Or maybe it was just a loud noise. He wasn’t sure of it. He used all his energy to open his eyes and turn his head to look for the other man. “Sp’ncer?” He mumbled. His words were wrong, and something was putting pressure on his face. It was wrong. it felt wrong. He had to get out of there. He had to make sure Reid was okay. 

“Shh, it’s okay Aaron. Reid is going to be okay. You’re going to be okay” a familiar voice told him. He couldn’t place who it was, but he knew he could trust it. He closed his eyes again and passed out. 

He woke up again with a clearer head. The lights were too bright and there was a rhythmic beep going off every few seconds. It didn’t take him long to realise the sound came from a heart monitor. His heart monitor. He was in a hospital. 

He opened his eyes and groaned as he tried to move. His chest was still burning up but way less than he last remembered. He squinted as he tried to look around and saw Rossi sitting on the visitor’s chair with Jack asleep in his arms as he hummed a melody. 

Rossi heard Hotch and immediately moved his head to look at him. He gave him a smile. “Welcome back to the land of the living. Took you long enough.” Rossi huffed. 

“How long was I out?” Hotch said quietly to not wake up his son. He smiled at the sight of him sleeping. He didn’t think he would see him again. 

“About a day. You worried us.” Rossi whispered, his eyes betraying on how worried he actually was. “You two had inhaled too much smoke from the fire and your lungs were all messed up. The doctor explained it with more details but I’m not in the mood to repeat all the medical mumbo jumbo.” Rossi stiffened a yawn. 

Hotch immediately tensed. “And Spencer? Is he okay? Where is he?” 

“Relax, Aaron. He is okay, woke up a few hours ago and has been asking for you. You both are going to stay in the hospital a few days to make sure you don’t have any complications but you’re both okay.” Rossi was too tired to explain the medical stuff to him, but he got the point across. 

Jack started stirring in Rossi’s arms and woke up a few seconds later. He rubbed his eyes and yawned until he saw his Dad was awake and smiling at him. “Dad!” He yelled and immediately threw himself to hug him. 

Hotch went to hug him back when he realised, he had his hands all bandaged up. He winced as he remembered how he got them in the first place and then proceeded to ignore them in favour of hugging his son. “It’s so good to see you here, buddy.” He whispered. 

Meanwhile Reid was in his own hospital room eating Jello and talking with Emily, JJ, Garcia and Morgan. They were all hanging out there because Rossi had kicked them out of Hotch’s room so Jack could sleep, and they thought it was better to spend it with Reid who was already awake. 

Emily had smuggled some popcorn and Garcia had bought half of the items of the vending machine, so everyone was enjoying some chips and food and occasionally throwing popcorn at Reid whenever he wanted to leave. 

Reid tried his best to convince them to let him sign himself out of the hospital, but it was no use. He just kept getting hit with popcorn. He didn’t mind much though; he liked popcorn and was eating it as they threw it. 

It still felt hard to breathe but it was getting better, he knew what he went through wouldn’t magically disappear after a few days and he would have to be careful not to exert himself in the near future. But he was okay, considering. He hoped Hotch would wake up soon. He needed to know he was okay. 

JJ was sitting next to his bed holding a phone as she video chatted with Henry so Reid could say hi. She knew her kid always made Spence smile and after what happened everyone wanted to see him smile. 

Emily kept eating her popcorn and occasionally rambled about Sergio while Garcia asked when she could go visit him. Morgan was sitting at the foot of Reid’s hospital bed with three jello containers which he passed to him when he finished one of them. 

Reid loved caffeine and since he couldn’t drink any of it at the moment, he was switching from his sugary coffee to a lot of jello. He loved jello. 

That’s when Rossi walked in and gently knocked on the door. All the attention was to him. “Hey, my favourite trouble kids, Aaron is awake.”

Everyone immediately smiled in relief and began to gather their stuff to go to his room. They all had been waiting in the hospital all night and wanted to see him. Morgan and JJ helped Reid get up and helped him walk. Ideally, he shouldn’t even be leaving his bed, but they knew Reid was adamant to go and he was one _stubborn_ genius, so they might as well help him. 

They all made it to Hotch in a bundle, except Reid, JJ and Morgan who were still walking, slower, to Hotch’s room. They smiled at the sight of Jack cuddling his dad. “Bossman has gone soft.” Garcia cooed and winked at him to show him she was just messing with him. She was the one who more often than not, joked around with Hotch. 

Hotch smiled with one of his rare dimpled smiled and shook his head. “Nice to see you too, Garcia.” 

“We brought popcorn, old man. And some chips and brownies for Hotch Jr.” Emily grinned as she gave a packaged brownie to Jack—who smiled and hugged her as a thank you— then she extended her arm with the popcorn container so that Hotch could take some. 

“Thanks, Emily.” Hotch grabbed a handful of popcorn.

Reid walked in, with Morgan and JJ at his side. He had his full puppy eyes and smiled as he saw Hotch was awake and looked well, considering. Wobbling towards the other man, he engulfed him into a hug as if he was a lifeline to safety. “You’re okay.” His voice cracked and Hotch held onto him tighter. “I thought we- I’m glad you’re okay… thank you.”

Hotch pursed his lips as he usually did to hide emotions and patted his back as he hugged him. “You’re okay too. We made it. We’re okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @AppalachianApologies for helping me brainstrom this fic. She is also doing Whumptober so check her fics out!
> 
> This started as a Reid whump fic but before i knew it it turned to a Hotch whump fic. oops. If you liked this Kudos and comments are so very welcome! 
> 
> I'm participating in the whumptober challenge this year and will most likely write Prodigal Son and Criminal Minds the most for it. So if you like those fandoms you can subscribe to my BrightTerror's 2020 whumptober series!  
> If you want to come and chat find me on Tumblr as: @BrightTerror  
> Have an amazing day!


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